Author discusses some of the challenges to the law caused by the situation, when there is a mismatch between legal norms and the norms of honor; and suggests ways of counteraction with some of these challenges. The dignity is the apt response to the belief that one has gained the right to be respected, just as a feeling of shame is appropriate, when one has lost that right. The honor codes of social groups provide the foundations for the gaining, maintaining or losing the right to respect. Therefore on the one hand honor mediates between pride and shame, on the other hand, between the social norms. One of the central effects of criminal punishment on those who belong to a civic honor world is to express the community’s judgment that an offender has violated an important kind of norm; and the natural response of others in that civic honor world is recognizing that the offender has thereby lost the right to respect for himself. If the offender shares that judgment, he or she feels shame. The converse mechanism — in response to honorable actions — plays a prominent role in generating the experience of civic pride.